Association for Transparent and Accountable Government (ATAG), has commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for declaring both the Wa and Navrongo campuses of University for Development Studies (UDS) as autonomous institutions.
The University for Development Studies, Tamale, was established in May 1992 by PNDC Law 279 to blend the academic world with that of the community in order to provide constructive and meaningful interaction between the two for the total Development of Northern Ghana, in particular, and Ghana at large.
It is a multi-campus institution with varied faculties running well-structured variety of programmes and has campuses in Wa in the Upper West Region and Navrongo in the Upper East Region.
At the 19th congregation of UDS in Tamale on Saturday November 10, 2018, President Akufo-Addo announced his government’s decision to make autonomous, the Wa and Navrongo campuses of the university.
It is against this background that ATAG in an open letter issued by its convener, Mujeeb Angbang Adams and his team members; Naeem Mohammed, Ibrahim Malisung Kunateh and Martin Kundor, commended the president for the bold step.
According to ATAG, the autonomous status for these universities will create additional spaces for the teeming youth that are clamoring for tertiary education, job opportunities and also promote economic activities of the already disadvantaged Upper East and Upper West Regions.
Below is the full letter
OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY NANA ADDO DUNKWA AKUFFO-ADDO, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA:
THANK YOU MR. PRESIDENT
His Excellency Nana Addo Dunkwa Akuffo Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana on Saturday November 10, 2018 declared UDS Wa and Navrongo Campuses autonomous at the 19th congregation of the University for Development Studies in Tamale. This singular action of yours Mr. President, worth commendation and will indeed go down in history as one of the greatest achievements to be remembered when you finally bow out of active politics. In fact this decision is timely and most appropriate Mr. President.
ATAG would not therefore hesitate to thank you for the bold and tumultuous decision taken and believe that you will ensure it gets a legislative backing to cement the old age dream of the people of the Upper West, and East Regions in particular and Ghana as a whole. These Universities will further create additional spaces for the teeming youth that are clamoring for tertiary education, job opportunities and also promote economic activities of these already disadvantage regions. The Universities will also help to contain the exponential growth of students’ population the second cycle schools will be chaining out as a consequent of the introduction of your Free Educational Policy.
His Excellency, it is refreshing to add that some political pundits in the country have their doubts about this declaration because they feared that this may add up to your numerous unfulfilled promises to Ghanaians justifiable or otherwise. They also have the reason to believe that the separation of the campuses has been unnecessarily delayed by your government since your predecessor His Excellency Former President John Dramani Mahama did a lot of work to path way to granting them autonomy. This according to them was mentioned in his last state of the nation address presented to parliament.
However, ATAG is aware according to an executive summary of a report submitted to Former President John Dramani Mahama in June 2016 by Dr. Amoako-Nuama on the autonomy of the various satellite campuses of UDS which also emphasized the former number One Gentleman’s preparedness to grant the autonomy. This emanated by the Former President John Dramani Mahama setting up an experts committee in 2014 chaired by Dr. Amoako –Nuama to review the autonomy policy proposal of the various campuses of UDS. The committee reviewed the infrastructural base of the various campuses of UDS, the strength of lecturers in each campus, the various programmes being ran amongst others. During its work, the Committee engaged key stakeholders within the catchment areas of the northern regions on the need for the autonomy. Some of the key findings and recommendations presented to the NDC led government at the time included amongst others the names of the autonomous Universities;
- Tamale and Nyankpala campuses would be called University for Development Studies-Tamale,
- Navrongo Campus was named University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Navrongo and
- Wa Campus University of Business and Integrated and Development Studies-Wa.
The committee also recommended some programmes to be offered by the various proposed Universities for a minimum number of years based on the already existing programmes run by the campuses before they could add other new programmes with the approval of National Council for Tertiary Education. Again, the committee recommended August 2017, as the effective date for which the campuses would have attained complete autonomous status. As a consequent of Dr. Amoako-Nuama Committee’s work the then government drafted a proposed bill for the new Universities and scheduled to amend the UDS Law, 1992 (P.N.D.C.L279).
Mr. President ATAG had no doubt that you are aware of this report since it would have been part of Former President John Dramani Mahama handing over notes to you. In fact, going by this report ATAG and all other well-meaning Ghanaians would come to no other conclusion than agreeing with us that the autonomy status of the various campuses of UDS is unnecessarily delayed by your government since the experts committee concluded that the campuses have what it take to attain their independence a year ago. Also, we are not blind to the fact that as a new government you might have reviewed such reports handed over to you by the previous administration to realign them to your government mission and vision, which could possibly cause this genuine delay.
ATAG however would wish and want to see your government fast-track the legal processes to give the backing to your public declaration to actually make the various campuses truly autonomous with the definition of some key mile stones to assure the good people of the regions that you honestly meant your words, which we can also hold you on as an accountable think tank.
Mr. President, it is vital to refresh your mind on the trajectory of activities with regard to UDS-Wa Campus that have culminated your public declaration on the autonomy of Wa and Navrongo Campuses. As you are aware that the nasty happenings in recent times in relation to UDS Wa Campus was triggered when the authorities of the University tried to realign some programmes currently pursued at the Wa campus to other campuses in the Northern and Upper East Regions possibly without the knowledge and backing of the school’s council. This occasioned the Chiefs and people of the Upper West Region fuming over these supposed decisions by the University authorities and consequently the President of the Regional House of Chiefs, Kuoro Richard Babini Kanto IV issued a press statement on 28th March 2018 to express their displeasure over the recent untoward developments pertaining to the campus.
Again, on the 26th July, 2018 our eminent Chiefs and Opinion Leaders of the Upper West Region paid a courtesy call on you to congratulate you on your assumption to the high office of the land. They also used the opportunity to appeal to you to reinstate the then suspended Regional Minister (Alhaji Alhassan Suleman) and equally grant the UDS-Wa Campus autonomy. Your Excellency Mr. President you assured them you would grant the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) autonomy before the end of your first four-year term in office. You further added your Excellency that “the Wa Campus of the UDS was established under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government by the Former President John Agyekum Kufuor’s administration and that it would be laudable for the NPP administration to grant the Wa Campus autonomy to prevent it’s eminent collapse as some of the courses are been withdrawn from the campus”.
Also, on July 25, 2018, the overlord of the Waala Traditional Area Wa Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV appealed to you to listen to their long standing plea for the Wa campus of the UDS to be granted autonomy when you paid a courtesy call on him at his palace, as part of your two-day tour of the Upper West Region. The happenings also got the concerned citizens of the region to organize a press conference on October 31, 2018 and followed it up with a massive demonstration on November 3, 2018 to express their displeasure to the political leadership on the subject matter, though the initial attempt by the youth of the region to embark on such a peaceful demonstration on July 2, 2018 was truncated by Alhaj Alhassan Suleman, Upper West Regional Minister. The concerned citizen in the region on November 12, 2018 again addressed the media on the autonomy declaration made by you to prevail on you to fast-track the passage of the separation bill by parliament and also complete the stalled infrastructural projects in the school.
This sustained tempo by the good people of the region including its traditional leadership is a clear demonstration that we will never rest on our odds until you finally get the legal backing to formalize this your declaration by facilitating the early passage of the legislative instrument to formally make UDS Wa campus truly autonomous.
History also has it that, the University for Development Studies was established in May 1992 under the auspices of Former President John Jerry Rawlings to serve the tertiary educational needs and development of Northern Ghana in particular, and the country as a whole, which was backed by a Legislative Instrument -PNDC Law 279. The University began academic work in September 1993 with the admission of forty (40) students into the Faculty of Agriculture, Nyankpala Campus. Subsequently all the other campuses came into being in Tamale and later moved to their current locations. However, the Faculty of Integrated Development Studies, (FIDS), Faculty of Education (FOE) and School of Business and Law were earmarked for the Upper West Region by the act that established the University but were moved from Tamale to the Upper East Region (Navrongo Campus) in the early 1990s possibly due to some infrastructural challenges to house the school in the Upper West Region. The Wa Satellite Campus however was moved to the Upper West Region by Former President John Agyekum Kufuor led government on 19th December, 2002 among all odds, since the people of the Upper East Region vehemently resisted its movement with a saying that they were not ready to exchange a cow with a goat. This in no doubt was under the instrumentality of the then Regional Minister Hon. Alhaji Shahanoon Mogtar for the Upper West Region in the first tenure of the NPP regime under this fourth republic. The Campus was initially located in the then newly built Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) Offices at Sombo, a suburb of Wa by the erstwhile NDC government and subsequently moved to its current location at Bamahu when some skeletal infrastructural projects such as hostels, offices and lecture halls were built by the then NPP administration. However, it is significant to put on record that some offices of the campus still operate from the RCC building till date due to some infrastructural deficits on the Bamahu main Campus.
The infrastructural development was continued by the NDC administration when they came into government in 2009 after winning the 2008 general elections. The (Atta Mills John Mahama) government awarded numerous infrastructural projects to the Wa Campus, such as; the multi-purpose library, lecture halls, auditorium, lecturers’ flats among others which are at various stages of completion. Unfortunately, when NPP won the 2016 elections under your leadership Mr. President all the projects under construction on the Campus have come to a standstill, thereby stagnating its development and independence. These infrastructural deficits have forced some of the departments in the university such as Education, Business and Law to rent office space for their lecturers. As a consequent of these infrastructural deficits, most lecturers use their private homes as offices to have discussions with students on their research works depriving them of privacy in most occasions. Students are also not left out in this conundrum as lectures are extended deep into the night exposing them to all kinds of dangers and in some cases even weekends which affects their private studies and also depriving some students from their religious activities. Mr. President, though the campus is on the Wa-Kumasi highway, one easily pass by the campus unnoticed due to the unattractive nature of its entrance. These myriad of challenges bedeviling the campus will in no doubt affect academic work of the students, and therefore ATAG would wish you fix them by ensuring the completion of these projects and also award new ones to the school with some financial allocations in the yet to be presented 2019 budget to parliament since infrastructure is key in every institution; which ATAG would tagged as “ajuma budget” since you touted it as coming with massive infrastructural investment to truly make the school independent with the impending passage of the legislative instrument by our august Members of Parliament.
Your Excellency Mr. President let ATAG also provoke another discussion with a rhetoric question; does the Upper West Region not deserve a full-fledged University as established in other regions by some previous governments? Aside you declaring the Wa Campus of the UDS autonomous ATAG would wish that you equally give birth to a University in the region so that you would be remembered with it when you finally retire from office, and possibly name it after Former President Dr. Hilleman of consecrated memory. It is rather sad that you have decided to name Wa Polytechnic an empty space without structures after him instead of putting up massive infrastructure to qualify it as a technical University.
Mr. President, permit ATAG to divagate a little to enable it make a special request to you to pamper and positively discriminate in support of Wa Polytechnic with your massive and gargantuan infrastructural investment captured in your 2019 budget yet to be presented to parliament as you continuously preaching across the country. It is sad to emphasize again that, the Wa Polytechnic is equally bleeding profusely when it’s come to infrastructure and it is almost asphyxiated if you do not intervene now with a special infrastructural antidotes to prevent it from eminent collapse. The Polytechnic though established by Former President John Jerry Rawlings in 1999 and initially located in a government building directly opposite the Upper Regional Hospital entrance, its current location was acquired and built by the erstwhile NPP administration under Former President John Agyekum Kuffour. Unfortunately, the institution was forgotten by the NDC and its leadership when they have another opportunity to lead this nation in 2009, though it was established by same. Sadly to say, within the eight long years of NDC administration little have been done to fix the infrastructural challenges of the institution.
ATAG therefore wishes to recommend the immediate implementation of these five points resolution as outlined below to attest to the seriousness of your government in granting an autonomy to the Wa Campus of UDS and also support in the revival of Wa Polytechnic to aid it qualify as a Technical University:
- Ensure the completion of all uncompleted projects in the campus and also expand the infrastructural base of the school as you work towards weaning it out of the mother.
- Take urgent and pragmatic steps to get the legal backing to formalize the autonomy issues to enable the supposed University conduct its own admissions in the 2019-2020 academic. These steps must go with the necessary timelines so that we can hold your government accountable and to monitor any deviation from the original target set.
- Set up a technical committee involving the academia, Members of Parliament, the Traditional and Religious Leaders, Civil Society Organizations etc to superintend the sharing of resources of UDS with the impending Universities leading to the separation
- Consider opening a new University for the region to absorb the anticipated increase in demand for tertiary education as a consequent of your most touted free education for second cycle institutions in the region and beyond.
- Adopt Wa Polytechnic as your orphan child and give it the needed special infrastructural package to prevent it from eminent collapse to aid it attain Technical University status.
Consequently, ATAG would wish to appeal to all interested parties fighting for the autonomy of Wa Campus of UDS to immediately halt all hostilities for a grace period of three months to give the government a briefing space to see to the passage of the legislative instrument that will truly give the Wa Campus of UDS its independence. However, we should all keep an eagle eye on government as a way of monitoring their actions and inactions as they play a lead role in facilitating the passage of the separation bill and the implementation of the call to actions as indicated above to ensure that the Wa Campus of the UDS is well placed to accommodate the much sought autonomy requested by the people of the region. ATAG will consult with all interested parties especially the concerned citizen of the Upper West Region after the expiration of the three months traced to organize a forum to assess the seriousness of government on the case in issue and chart the way forward.
Thank You.
Mujeeb Angbang Adams
(Convener- ATAG)
Source:A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHZ|Ghana
